Can The Opening Of High-speed Rail Improve Audit Quality?

The CHSR(China High-speed Railway)has entered the fast lane.As of2019,the total operating mileage of the CHSR has exceeded 35,000 kilometers.The CHSR opening reduces travel time cost,improves accessibility and alleviates information asymmetry in the capital market.The value of the auditor‘s work comes from the screening and judgment of corporate financial information.The CHSR opening will improve the information environment faced by auditors.At present,few articles have focused on the relevance of the CHSR construction and audit work.Will the “information effect” of the CHSR opening also affect the audit,and will it significantly promote audit quality? This article will focus on this problem.This paper collected the sample data from 2005-2018 on the listed companies,and used the DID Model to conduct quasi-natural experimental research to examine the impact of the CHSR opening on audit quality.In addition,this article conducted a heterogeneous study of the improvement effect on the scale of firms and the attention of analysts received by the companies.The research results suggest that after the opening of the CHSR,the audit quality of audited companies in cities along the route has been improved.Further research shows that the CHSR opening has a more prominent positive impact on the audit quality of large-scale firms.When the company is under low analyst attention,the CHSR opening will be more helpful to improve the audit quality.